| |
| No picture available for this restaurant. If you have a picture, please email it to us |
|
 |
| Address |
Paxton and Whitfield, 27-29 Wharfside Street The Mailbox
|
| Postcode |
B1 1RQ Map |
| Tel |
0121 632 1440 |
| Website |
|
| Hours |
Mon-Fri 0900-2000, Sat 1000-2000, Sun 1100-1700 |
| Facilities |
LICENSED |
Full Restaurant Listing |
| An exhaustive 1270 words from chris on Monday, August 30, 2004
|
| Food: |
Value |
Service: |
Decor: |
Rating: |
Cost/head: |
Suits: |
| 4/10 |
: 5/10 |
7/10 |
4/10 |
49 % |
£15 |
not specified |
|
I always thought the original Fino was a very fine place for lunch. We have a habit of meeting my parents in town for lunch at least one Saturday every month and the place never failed to offer something on the menu that both parents could enjoy. Last month we flirted with McKenzie’s but this Saturday we decided to return to the Mailbox. Perversely we didn’t go to the ‘new’ Fino but thought we’d try out the boys who were responsible for kicking them out in the first place.
Paxton & Whitfield have retained the Fino concept of shop up front and restaurant t’back but with rather more favour shown to merchandising. The original shop is now a respectable cheese shop even though it appears to be suffering from an identity crisis (the cheese on offer is 90% British and Irish but lacking the courage of their convictions they also have an incongruous little selection of French and Italian cheeses). I’m pleased to see it still sells fine anchovies (although what they are doing in a cheese shop is a matter of debate) but disappointed that they have nothing on offer remotely as good as Fino’s chilli bomba pasta sauce. But then it’s a cheese shop not a deli. Moving into what was Fino’s restaurant proper the raised platform is now given over to more retail, with display cases offering exotically priced cheese knives as well as books and gifts and a rear wall given over to wines. Even in the space left for dining proper you share your environment with a display case in the middle of the floor and another on the back wall to tempt you with Paxton & Whitfield branded goodies. It’s all more than a little OTT and gave me the impression I was eating in a National Trust gift shop. I was ready to believe a waitress would approach me at any moment to enquire if I’d ever considered becoming a member of the Paxton & Whitfield Trust. Décor-wise they’ve muted the colours right back to the point where the place is almost anaesthetised, cold rather than cool.
As you’d expect cheese features quite heavily on the Paxton & Whitfield menu although they’ve decided to cover all bases by offering a few non-cheese dishes. The ones that I can recall are a completely uninspiring minute steak sandwich in ciabatta and a very weird dish that was based around Thai green chicken curry. For our lunch Vicki chose a goat’s cheese and roasted vegetable salad with olive tapanade (£7.50), ma and myself had an organic Caerphilly and leek tart with ‘proper’ piccalilli (£5.25) and dad had a ‘ragu’ of lasagne £6.95. We also ordered a bread basket (£1.95), three Budweiser’s at an eye-watering £2.95 per 33cl bottle and a bottle of still water (£2.25).
In a spirit of fairness I will mention straight off that all the dishes looked stunning – presentation is clearly a big thing here, but unfortunately it didn’t carry through to the eating. Vicki declared that some of her vegetables were beautifully roasted although she didn’t say which ones so you’ll have to find out for yourself. When a dish advertises itself as a goat’s cheese and roast vegetable salad however you might reasonably expect the goat’s cheese to play more than a walk-on part. Vicki’s offering came with three small slices of cheese that elevated the art of parsimony to new levels. Perhaps the chef knew what he was doing though because the cheese actually wasn’t that good and after bemoaning the small portion Vicki had to offer up the third slice to me in defeat. For me one of the defining characteristics of a good soft goat’s cheese is that slight metallic ‘fly-spray’ taste which is pleasurable in small amounts but quite vile when it’s too strong. Sadly this cheese fell into the later camp and certainly didn’t urge me to go to the shop afterwards to buy more to take home. The tapenade was also extremely salty making a very weird bed-partner with the overpowering cheese. Vicki was reduced to buying some chocolate after leaving the restaurant to take away the taste of her meal which is surely not the desired effect.
I was intrigued by the promise of ‘proper’ piccalilli – had I been eating improper stuff all my life? Sad to say I still don’t know what proper piccalilli is! I’d imagined that it would turn out to be something akin to a turmeric and mustard sauce and that’s probably what it was except it was baked into the tart with the cheese mix as a modern take on the classic Welsh rarebit. The pastry base was nice, as was the lightly dressed salad but the cheese and piccalilli mix was a very weird concoction indeed. Had the menu not told me the tart contained organic Caerphilly cheese I would not have known because the overpowering taste was of vinegar and mustard. You’d think the star of the dish should be the cheese but this was definitely underplayed. My mother said she thought it was very nice but she’s probably the most obliging person in restaurants. I thought they’d be better off not mucking about with their food and sticking with a classic Welsh rarebit.
I was just as puzzled by my fathers ‘Ragu’ of lasagne. What’s a ragu? It’s not an Italian word or a culinary term as far as I know although I’m happy to be corrected. What he got looked the part – a tall tower of lasagne which was impressive enough, given the lack of scaffolding. But the fact that it could stand so upright rather than the unctuous lasagne I make that weeps all over the plate, was because it was completely devoid of any sauce, béchamel or otherwise. It was in fact as dry and stodgy as a lump of bread pudding. Perhaps this is what a ragu is meant to be? Regardless, my father thought it had sat too long under a heat lamp. It hadn’t in fact as the pasta was still soft and perfectly cooked; it was the just made that way – the driest lasagne that ever was created. It was a big old portion too, which just added to my father’s plight because to be honest he was having a visibly hard time choking it all down.
Sadly even the bread basket couldn’t redeem the place. You’d think a cheese shop would have something special in the way of bread but our basket contained about three slices of white bloomer loaf, a couple of slices of rye and a pat of run-of-the-mill butter.
Our bill came in at £38 which is not a lot for a lunch for four, but unfortunately it’s not going to be voted as great value for money in my judgement because so little of the food was enjoyable. Certainly the beer is over-priced and other dishes on the menu did require a double-take. Goat’s cheese crostini for instance was on offer for around £8.95. Nine quid for crostini? Service however was relaxed and efficient but they were hardly stretched with diners so you’d expect nothing less.
Overall I’d have to say the place delivers short in almost every department. Its menu lacks inspiration, the kitchen lacks verve, the décor was designed by a somnambulist and the prices were decided by their accountant. Vicki summed the place up as we were leaving – “Shan’t bother again”. Well that’s that then.
If you are the restaurant owner, we now offer the RIGHT TO REPLY
(see below):
RIGHT TO REPLY
If you are the restaurant owner and wish to comment/clarify any points made in this review please submit your remarks to info@birminghamplus.com |
| |
| REVIEWS
|
| CHRIS |
| REVIEWS |
| No.of reviews: |
175 |
| Average Rating: |
58.78% |
| Highest Rating: |
99 % |
| Lowest Rating: |
0 % |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| FEEDBACK (0
) |
|
No-one has provided feedback yet | |
|
|
|
